WWE Raw Must Officially Pass The Torch From Brock Lesnar To Braun Strowman

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WWE Raw will be tempted to do what it typically does with Roman Reigns and have him win another pay-per-view main event at Extreme Rules, but this is not the time for "The Big Dog" to become Universal Champion.

Credit: WWE.comCredit: WWE.com

Raw GM Kurt Angle announced on this week's episode that a multi-man match at next month's Extreme Rules PPV would determine the next challenger for Brock Lesnar's Universal title. The only names confirmed for the bout thus far are Reigns and Bobby Lashley, and the widespread expectation is already that Reigns will win the match and ultimately go on to slay the Goliath known as Lesnar, probably at SummerSlam.

But there is only one outcome WWE should consider for the 2018 SummerSlam main event: Braun Strowman cashing in his briefcase and defeating Lesnar for the Universal Championship.

With no definitive answer as to what Lesnar will be doing in the near future (he might even be headed back to UFC), Lesnar's historic Universal title reign, which recently became the longest world title reign of the modern era, appears to be coming to a close. As it should be. And with WWE already badly missing the boat on opportunities to have Reigns dethrone Lesnar, the best bet to rid the WWE of a Universal Champion who's lost his luster, his ability to have consistently good matches and his drawing power.

Yes, it's officially time for Lesnar to lose his title and pass the torch to "The Monster Among Men."

There may not be a superstar with more momentum than Strowman, who won the Greatest Royal Rumble in April and the Money in the Bank briefcase just two days ago. He's like LeBron James: No matter the situation, when the show is over, he's the star everyone is talking about.

From constantly improving in-ring performances to roof rattling crowd reactions that sound like they'd register on the Richter scale to a connection with the crowd that can't be manufactured at the NXT Performance Center, Strowman is on another level from every star in WWE right now, with only a handful of exceptions like Seth Rollins, Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles.. With Strowman's impressive YouTube viewership and stellar merchandise sales backing up the widespread notion that he is currently one of the most populars wrestler on the planet, it's mind-blowing that he isn't already the Universal Champion.

More than four years ago, Lesnar shocked the world when he ended The Undertaker's undefeated streak at WrestleMania 30, and that moment would serve as the vehicle to make Lesnar nearly unbeatable over the next four years. The entire purpose of Lesnar ending the streak was for him to eventually pass the torch by losing to Reigns at WrestleMania 34, establishing Reigns as the face of WWE and its No. 1 star going forward.

Well, so much for that.

Reigns' losses to Lesnar at both WrestleMania and Greatest Royal Rumble caused his rise to the top of WWE to come to a screeching halt, and matters were only made worse at Backlash (when fans made it clear they'd rather get home in a timely fashion than stick around for a Reigns main event) and at Money in the Bank, when they had no interest in his match with Jinder Mahal. Sure, Reigns' fan base is still there, but the predetermined route of Reigns being crowd WWE's No. 1 star at WrestleMania 34 went so far off course that Strowman was able to zoom right by him.

Strowman is indeed everything WWE wishes Reigns was, and there isn't a more logical option to dethrone Lesnar than the man who was not supposed to be more popular than "The Big Dog."

Anyone who watches WWE knows that the absence of Lesnar has been detrimental to Raw, resulting in a litany of effects that have negatively impacted WWE, Reigns, Strowman and just about everyone on the red brand's roster. Having Lesnar appear infrequently as Universal Champion may not have been a terrible idea, that was until WWE shifted its business model to gear its programming toward focusing more heavily on TV than the WWE Network.

That means that Raw, which is set to break the bank with a massive TV deal next fall, should be less worried about selling WWE Network subscriptions and more worried about improving its TV product, which is far and away it's biggest moneymaker. As a result, WWE has essentially no choice but to take the Universal Championship off Lesnar because there's a better chance of Zack Ryder becoming world champion than there is of Lesnar ever working anything remotely resembling a full-time WWE schedule.

Lesnar isn't going to be the full-time champion that WWE's new TV-centered product needs. But Strowman? He's exactly what Raw needs and what its fans want.

It must be their lucky day, too. Strowman called out Lesnar after Money in the Bank and appears to be in route to a possible SummerSlam title match via cash-in against Lesnar, which could provide the perfect stage for Strowman to end a title reign that has had Raw in a vice grip for well over a year.

Lesnar's never-ending title reign needs to do just that, end, and with all the dominoes appearing to fall perfectly, Strowman is the right man for the job. After all, if anyone deserves to carry the torch that's been held by "The Beast," it's "The Monster."

Blake Oestriecher is an elementary school teacher by day and a sports writer by night. He’s a contributor to the Forbes @SportsMoneyBlog, where he primarily covers WWE. You can follow him on Twitter @BOestriecher.

I'm a contributor for the SportsMoney team at Forbes, where I'll examine the interesting effect that sports have on business...and vice versa. I graduated from Louisiana State University in 2010 with a degree in journalism and a minor in English, and during my time in Baton...